Robert Litman and Robert Deiner started a company in 1991 called the Hotel Reservations Network, or HRN, which later in 2001, became part of Expedia Inc. Then a year later, in 2002, it was renamed Hotels.com, as it is known today - a website for making hotel bookings online and via telephone.

What is Hotels.com? Hotel.com as mentioned above, is a website for booking hotel rooms either by telephone or online. The 85 websites owned by the company are available in 34 languages, and has a list in excess of 145,000 hotels situated in more than 19,000 areas around the world. Included on its list of inventory are hotels, bed and breakfasts, several condos, as well as various types of commercial accommodation. Since 2002, the company has grown steadily internationally, with web sites included for Central, North, and South America, Australia, Japan, Europe, the Pacific Rim, China, the Middle East, South Africa, as well as web sites for Vietnam and Indonesia, which were launched in 2011. Online or telephone bookings are available to multi-lingual call centers for clients in all of these countries, with calls being both paid and toll-free, depending on which country the client is calling from. Advantages of using Hotels.com One of the main advantages of using Hotels.com to make your hotel reservations, is the fact that you have such a wide variety of hotels to choose from, in so many countries around the world Their system allows you to find the hotel that will suit your needs perfectly, with prices, rates and deals to suit your particular budget. They offer great promotions and discounts, as well as savings, when you make a booking with one of the more than 20,000 hotels that they have listed especially for last minute bookings. Disadvantages of booking through Hotels.com Unfortunately, the disadvantages of using Hotels.com far outweigh the advantages, according to the many negative reviews from dissatisfied customers. Just a few of these include the following unpleasant experiences:

Although they claim to refund money immediately, many clients report that they had to wait for weeks to get back money owed to them, and for some, their refund didn't materialise at all.

Many customers complain of staff being very rude and impatient, with the majority of them not being able to speak English properly, which of course, leads to a breakdown in communication between customer and staff member.

Many customers also complain that Hotels.com do not provide what the client asks for when making their hotel booking, such as one client, that distinctly asked for telephone and internet access, only to find that neither of these were available in the room that he had booked.

Previous user reviews As with the advantages and disadvantages of using Hotels.com, there are many more negative reviews from previous clients, than there are positive ones. Some very disgruntled clients reported the following:

Cancellation procedures were different to the hotel advertised by Hotels.com, and in spite of the client cancelling in time the hotel still took the payment. The client is still waiting, after more than three months of emailing, calling, and exercising extreme patience, for this problem to be sorted out.

Another client called to cancel a booking that was made just seven minutes earlier, only to be told that the room would be cancelled, but no money would be refunded.

Still another very angry customer told of how a hotel booking was made three days before the room was actually needed, only to be told by the hotel that there was no record of any such reservation ever being made! Although Hotel.com sent this client a confirmation number, it would not have helped at all, as the hotel in question had been fully booked for three months!

On the other hand, some clients did have a few positive things to say about Hotels.com, such as:

One client booked and paid for a room through Hotels.com, only to have his/her father-in-law pay again for the room with his credit card. The client had quite a difficult time getting the hotel to reimburse the amount paid by credit card, and was very impressed when Hotels.com reimbursed this amount, even though they were not required to do so.

Still another customer was exceptionally pleased with the type of customer service provided by Hotels.com, after making enquiries about an amount of money that was to be refunded. It was not confirmed however, whether the money was indeed refunded or not!

Coupons you can use for further discount with Hotels.com Hotels.com does have a variety of coupons that you can use to save a significant amount of money when you next travel, such as a rebate of up to $100 for a hotel stay, $30 off a qualifying 5-night hotel stay, or $75 off a qualifying 10-day hotel stay, and many more. Do check these coupons carefully though, as some of them expire after a certain length of time, and some of them do not expire at all. In conclusion Although Hotels.com have some great offers, and promise their clients a wonderful service, the general feeling amongst the majority of their customers is that their services are disappointing, that they are not trustworthy, and do not live up to their promises.